


The Serpent's Maw

by JemDragons



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Limbo, Near Death Experiences, Not Really Character Death, Snakes, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:02:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27776563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JemDragons/pseuds/JemDragons
Summary: What happens in the room between life and death?
Kudos: 1
Collections: A Ballad of Seas and Ships





	The Serpent's Maw

**Author's Note:**

> Sapic is a Tortle Monk (she/her) and the POV character  
> Zevas is a Human Blood Hunter (he/him)

Pain, sharp and sickly.

I can feel myself falling backwards from the force of it.

That hit...much harder than I was expecting…

The world slows as I lose my balance and I can feel my toes wetting with spilled blood.

  
  


I don’t think I’m okay.

  
  


I want to move to catch myself on my elbow but my arms are stiff and numb (when did that happen?) and my shell smacks against the ground loudly.

I want to move, to check my wound and see what hit me but everything is so heavy.

I can feel with each breath, the shell over my front creaking and rubbing against itself (which isn’t meant to happen!) and as my head lolls to the side I can see an ever-expanding pool of crimson spread out around me.

Oh. 

I see.

Beyond the pool I see Zevas, lying still, face-up and belly split. I can’t tell if he’s breathing.

My vision blurs but not with tears. Gods, I’m so tired. I just wanted to sleep today. I didn’t want to wake up for this.

I…

Just wanted...

  
  


To...

  
  
  
  


Sleep...

* * *

I’m in a room. It’s quiet. Muted. So silent I can’t hear my own footsteps. Or maybe I can’t hear at all. I pay it no mind.

I step forwards and Zevas is there. 

I see him in the corner of my vision, or maybe I don’t. Maybe I just know he’s there in my soul so I don’t need to look.

He came from a door, the same way I did. 

I don’t know how I know it but I do.

The same way that I know there are six doors in this room of infinite size and of infinite colours so bright they blend into white again.

We step forward, less of our own will and more because we do. 

In front of me looms a statue, giant, larger than the largest tree or the tallest building, higher than the sky, but so small as well. It twists and deforms and each time I look at it, it morphs into a different shape.

It is a snake.

I know this, but I do not see it.

Or maybe I do. Because who knows what snakes are? I have no need for such knowledge. 

The snake lowers its head to me, larger than the sun, the size of a doorway. 

I step closer, heedless of the figure standing beneath it. They are inconsequential.

It opens its mouth and inside I see...

  
  


Nothing.

  
  


It is empty.

  
  


That makes sense, because it is empty. There is nothing. I am nothing. 

  
  


Something touches my hand but I barely notice, numb to feeling. I slide my hand from their grasp almost without purpose.

  
  


The snake Calls to me.

  
  
  


A glow.

  
  
  


A colour?

  
  
  


My arms burn in ribbons and my chest screams like a village on fire as golden light reaches my eyes. It wraps around my body in threads and _tugs._

  
  


The snake Calls to me, mouth open and Waiting.

  
  


I mustn’t keep it Waiting.

  
  


Another tug and I lose my balance, I find myself being dragged back through the door faster than I can think, faster than I can breathe (I'm breathing?), and I have but a moment and a lifetime to watch as the snake closes its jaws and raises its head. Disappointment radiates from it, or from me, and I want to beg, plead, _cry._

  
  


Please.

  
  


Forgive me.

  
  


I’m sorry.

  
  


Bring me back.

  
  
  
  


_Please._

**Author's Note:**

> We had a NUTS session yesterday. Three of our five party members went down and everyone was rolling terribly. It was our first time having anyone on death saves and I couldn't not write something edgy for it.


End file.
